Miatatude

Shopping Trip

With our whole day off we decided to go over to Augusta and do some shopping. Donna won a $25 gift certificate to Sports Authority and it was burning a hole in her pocket. We also wanted to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up a gift card for Donna’s Mom to take to Seattle next week as a gift for her brother’s wedding.

While we were over there we went in a few other stores looking for just the right prizes for tomorrow’s Master’s Miata Club Bug Splat Rally – read cheap. By the time we came back to Aiken it was near 2:00 PM and in the lower 90’s, but the humidity must have been down as it felt hot, not oppressive.

Tonight we drove downtown and got a dish of ice cream and wandered around looking in shop windows. Well Donna was looking in windows, I was looking for possible spots to try out the night mode on my digital camera by taking pictures of the Miata.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1181.24
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213

I’m Gonna Be In The Paper. Maybe.

Don’t worry I finished the newsletter. Print it up tomorrow at work, collate it at home and in the mail Friday, right on schedule.

I may or may not have my picture in the Sunday paper. I may or may not have my pearls of wisdom printed in the Sunday paper. I know somebody who knows somebody is how it happened.

The local rag, the Aiken Standard, is doing a Sunday feature this week on the plethora of specialty SC license plates. The reporter who interviewed me said that there are 96 different plates available with 6 more on the way. I have Share The Road plate from the Palmetto Cycling Coalition (picture is about halfway down the plate page.) I was not the only person photographed or interviewed so we will see what gets published.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1181.24
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213

Only Because I Washed It

The top cycled, but only because I washed it. Then I waxed the car too. After the clean-up I went out and bought some new windshield wipers. I remembered while windexing all the widows that the last time it rained I needed wipers, so I bought them before my usual reminder, a streaky windshield the next rain. Feeling real expansive, I also bought a can of semi-gloss black to respray the wiper arms and a roll of masking tape so I could use the same paint on the two rocker panels to touch them up.

At lunch we drove in the MSV out to a farm in the county to see our neighbor girl do a show jumping competition.

Mid-afternoon it was over to North Augusta where we had a nice turn out of Miatas for the Sno-Cap Anniversary, but we were outnumbered by Mustangs.

We had just an hour after returning from there before we went two streets over to “baby-sit” our friends kids. Time for bed as it is up at 6:30 for an early bike ride. Yawn. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I will have time to hunt up something broken for Photo Friday.

Purchased Today: $25.38
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1166.04
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213

Dead Bugs & Fat Families

We went out after dark and drove one of our favorite 25 mile loops into the less populated sections of the county. Smashed about 1,000 bugs onto the front of the Miata. That is OK as tomorrow it will get a wash. Later in the day we are headed over to North Augusta to help the Sno-Cap Drive In celebrate their 39th anniversary, throughout the day various local Car Clubs hang out for an allotted time. We will be sharing the lot with the Mustang Club. There will be free drinks and food samples served by middle and high school cheerleaders, plus games, contests and trivia. Pleasant way to spend a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon.

At the end of our drive was a stop at Krogers for the essentials for breakfast tomorrow. Eggs, bacon, bananas, apples and a cantaloupe. As we were walking in, we had the misfortune of following in a fat family of three, mom, teenaged daughter and a pre-teen. The “littlest” was 4′-6″ and 150 pounds. The teenager was maybe 5-8 and 175. Mom was a little shorter than the teen and weighed more, maybe 200 lbs. The two daughters were busy calling each other names. The mother was telling them to stop it and they just ignored her. They went left and we went right. Of course we ran into them again near the eggs. The teenaged daughter was standing there swinging the gallon of milk she had in her hand not paying attention to anything. We had to shift over to another aisle to get by. The two girls were still bickering and the mom was still shushing them. We made it to the cashier and guess who got in line right behind us? Right. After listening to them for about 30 seconds we left that line even thought we were next and went 3 lines over.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211

Getting Close

After this weekend’s trip and tonight’s little drive in the dark the Miata’s mileage stands at 119,825. At 120k you are supposed to change the timing belt, a $400-$500 job. Now the rubber belt in my car is the same rubber belt that are installed on cars sold in California, but in California you don’t have to change the belt but every 100,000 miles. This is because by California law any emissions part must be warranted for 100k. So, should I wait and do the belt when I hit 160 because I did change it at 60,000 miles like Mazda says I should or should I spent the money now and get it done like a good boy? For reference, the Miata is a non-interference engine (meaning if the belt does break, nothing bad happens.)

And what would happen if I moved to California?

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211

Raisin Juice

Sort of. The icky fluid turns out to have been from water that used to be ice leaking out of a hole in a plastic bag and soaking through a box of raisins. Donna remembered what it was when she started to empty the insulated lunch pack we carried some of our goodies in last night.

Dodged a big bullet today. About 20 minutes before quitting time I heard one clap of thunder. I looked outside, and although it looked really ugly, I was on the fence about putting the top up with it so close to quitting time. Erring on the side of caution, I went out, removed the cover, removed the boot, and raised the top. While I was in the process, seeming to validate my choice, it started to sprinkle. After the top was up and I returned to the building, the drops stopped, and it looked like it would blow over. Precisely 2 minutes before 4 o’clock the skies opened and it poured down. Whew.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 210

Ick, What’s That?

Up this morning in Dahlonega, Georgia and even though Holiday Inn Express’s cinnamon rolls are awesome Donna wanted eggs for breakfast. We asked the desk clerk where to go and she directed us to Danny’s just up the street. When we got there about 7:15AM we weren’t sure they were open because there was only one car in the lot. The sign said they opened at 6:30 so we went on in. Glad we did, nice home cooked breakfast type place. The food was good and cheap. And it showed, by the time we left the place was nearly full.

After chow we headed to Marietta by as many back roads as we could. There was even a 15 mile detour around a bridge that was out on GA53 we hadn’t planned on, but it was Ok because GA136 was a real nice Miata road. And like most of these roads in North Georgia on a Sunday morning, deserted except for us. We eventually had to get on I-75 to finish the trip to R-speed for there 4th Annual Open House. We got there at about number 25, by the time we left 2 hours later the lot was nearly full, probably 150 Miatas and about a dozen Minis. I was not swayed to buy any of the bargains, but did buy a new Rspeed T-shirt.

When we got home this evening and started to unpack the trunk I noticed what looked like brown water all over some of the bottom layers of stuff. At first I thought it was muddy water as we had tossed our dirty hiking boots in there. Upon closer inspection it looked like spilled Coke, which is weird because we didn’t have an open soda near the trunk all weekend. It took me about a hour to clean up the mess and I still need to let the bottom carpet dry from the cleaner I sprayed on it before I can vacuum it and then put it all back together.

Purchased Today: $14.75 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 209